Deadly Mexico fireworks explosion hit market packed for holidays

This image made from video provided by APTN, shows a view from a drone of smoke billowing from the San Pablito Market, where an explosion ripped through a fireworks market in Tultepec, Mexico, Tuesday, Dec. 20, 2016.

The San Pablito fireworks market was especially well stocked for the holidays and bustling with hundreds of shoppers when a powerful chain-reaction explosion ripped through its stalls, killing at least 31 people and leaving dozens more badly burned.

The third such blast to ravage the market on the northern outskirts of Mexico's capital since 2005 sent up a towering plume of smoke that was lit up by a staccato of bangs and flashes of light. Once the smoke cleared, the open-air bazaar was reduced to a stark expanse of ash, rubble and the charred metal of fireworks stands, casting a pall over the country's Christmas season.

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Mexico State health officials said about 60 people were hospitalized for injuries from Tuesday's explosion, including for severe burns, in some cases over 90 percent of their bodies. On Wednesday, 47 people remained hospitalized, among them, 10 children. Authorities have not yet said what may have caused the explosions that took place in Mexico State, which rings the capital.

The Mexico State government said Wednesday the death toll rose to 31, after five people died at local hospitals. Mexico State chief prosecutor Alejandro Gomez said some of the dead were so badly burned that neither their age nor their gender could be immediately determined. He said the toll could rise because 12 people were listed as missing and some body parts were found at the scene.

AP/Eduardo Verdugo

Local policemen walk through the scorched ground of the open-air San Pablito fireworks market, in Tultepec, outskirts of Mexico City, Mexico, Tuesday, Dec. 20, 2016.

A list of the nine bodies identified so far showed one of the dead included a 3-month-old baby boy and a 12-year-old girl. Gomez said a total of seven male minors were among the dead.

Survivor Crescencia Francisco Garcia said she was in the middle of the grid of stalls when the thunderous explosions began. She froze, reflexively looked up at the sky and then took off running through the smoke once she realized everyone was doing so. As she ran she saw people with burns and cuts, and lots of blood.

"Everything was catching fire. Everything was exploding," Francisco said. "The stones were flying, pieces of brick, everything was flying."

Sirens wailed and a heavy scent of gunpowder lingered in the air well after the thunderous explosions at the market, which were widely seen in a dramatic video. The smoking, burned-out shells of vehicles ringed the perimeter, and first responders and local residents wearing blue masks over their mouths combed through the ash and debris. Firefighters hosed down still-smoldering hotspots.

Cesar Ornelas of Atizapan de Zaragoza was only 10 minutes into shopping with his son and his father when he heard the first explosions. He tried to run, but something knocked him to the ground from behind. He tried several times to get up, unsuccessfully, and ultimately his 15-year-old son Francisco had to drag him out.

"We didn't look back," said Ornelas, who suffered light burns and a large bruise over his left kidney. His white tank top had a fist-size burn on the chest. "We heard how the explosion was kind of going off bit by bit."

Nearly four hours later, he and Francisco limped gingerly out of the market area. Francisco said paramedics told him his leg was likely fractured by flying debris. Ornelas said his 67-year-old father, Ernesto, had run in a different direction and sought refuge in a nearby home. All of the father's clothing was burned, and his face and arm were bloodied. An ambulance had spirited him to a hospital, but Ornelas wasn't sure where it was or how serious his injuries were.

Tultepec Mayor Armando Portuguez Fuentes said the manufacture and sale of fireworks is a key part of the local economy. He added that it is regulated by law and under the "constant supervision" of the Defense Department, which oversees firearms and explosives.

"This is part of the activity of our town. It is what gives us identity," Portuguez said. "We know it is high-risk, we regret this greatly, but unfortunately many people's livelihoods depend on this activity."

For Juana Antolina Hernandez, 49, the fireworks market was the family business, passed on from generation to generation. Hernandez has run a stand for 22 years next to one operated by her parents.

On Wednesday, Hernandez was one of the disconsolate residents waiting outside the local morgue, looking for missing relatives.

"I can't find my father, and my mother is very badly burned," said Hernandez. "I am waiting here (at the morgue) for them to tell me if my father is here, but up to this point, nothing."

"Everything is gone," she said of the market, which she escaped in a mad dash when the explosions began. "I know we lost everything, but I am going to start over."

A similar fire engulfed the San Pablito Market in 2005, touching off a chain of explosions that leveled hundreds of stalls just ahead of Mexico's Independence Day. A year later, a similar accident at the same market also destroyed hundreds of stands.

Deadly fireworks explosions have occurred with some regularity in Mexico: In 2002, a blast at a market in the Gulf coast city of Veracruz killed 29; in 1999, 63 people died when an explosion of illegally stored fireworks destroyed part of the city of Celaya; and in 1988, a fireworks blast in Mexico City's La Merced market killed at least 68.

In an editorial Wednesday, the newspaper El Universal called it "the traditional tragedy," noting "our country's fascination with fireworks has caused, among other things, a long series of accidents with terrible results."